Meet our Software Developer
Vicky Wu What is your role at Optiver? Optiver is a market-making firm and I’m in the Korea market-facing team, where we aim to improve our performance and execution across the Korean markets.
This year’s theme is ‘Lead with Purpose’. Can you tell us what this means to you? When placed in a leadership position, it’s easy to get distracted by the responsibility of making important decisions, and managing expectations and resources. Leadership is not only about driving change and impact, but also fostering a healthy culture in the team and inspiring others to be as passionate as you are in achieving the team’s goals. I’m a firm believer of leadership being strongly connected to both communication and teamwork - it’s the role of a leader to ensure that the entire team works together cohesively towards a common purpose.
What is something about Optiver that has surprised you? The opportunity for anyone to step into a leadership role and take on additional responsibility. Due to the flat hierarchical structure within the company, all employees are encouraged to step up and take ownership of projects. During my time at Optiver, I’ve been able to collaborate with a variety of stakeholders across the business in driving purposeful improvements to our trading stack.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to improve their leadership skills but struggles with self-doubt? Just be confident! Trust in your experience and the decisions you have made. I’m sure as a leader those decisions have been well thought through, so believe in yourself. It’s also useful to remember that even though you might be in a leadership position, you are leading a team and have the team to support you as well. Bounce ideas off them and this will help build confidence in how you lead.
How do you see the role of women in leadership evolving in the coming years, and what steps is your organisation taking to support this evolution? It’s amazing to see more women rise up to take on leadership positions in recent years. Optiver strongly advocates for women in leadership and we sponsor both the Girls in Tech Australia and Grace Hopper. Within the company, we have a strong support network for women with various social events and a DEI committee to help run external training, such as Women in Leadership and Outspoken Women.
What is something you would like to be doing in the future and how do you see yourself reaching that goal? I’d love to be leading new initiatives both work-related and outside of work. I have various personal project ideas and would love to lead a team to make these ideas a reality. To achieve this, I’ve put in time to research and learn about related products and emerging technologies to gain confidence in leading my own project.
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